206 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Transformation of Fatty Matters into Sugars in Oily Grains 

 during Germination.* — M. P. Maze describes some experiments with 

 seeds of Arachis which indicate that the digestion of fats during 

 germination is effected by a progressive fixation of oxygen from the air, 

 accompanied probably by a slight loss of carbon and resulting, ou 

 ultimate analysis, in production of sugars. The experiment was made 

 with cotyledons from seeds which had begun to germinate ; the embryo 

 having been removed the cotyledons were exposed in glass vessels to a 

 current of air, and the carbonic acid gas which was evolved carefully 

 collected and estimated. The experiments lasted seventeen days. 



Contributions to the Chemistry of Chlorophyll, f — Dr. Schunck 

 finds that the fseces of animals supplied with green vegetable foods only, 

 contain no chlorophyll but substances which are presumably chlorophyll 

 derivatives, formed by the action of acids or other agency on the chloro- 

 phyll of the food. One of these substances is apjjarently identical with 

 phylloxanthin ; another seems to be a new body nearly resembling 

 phyllocyanin. It is characterised by a fine purplish-blue colour and a 

 brilliant metallic lustre. 



General. 



Distribution of Plants in the Alps and Jura Mountains. $ — Prof. 

 P. Jaccard has made an elaborate comparative examination of the flora 

 of restricted areas at different altitudes and showing a variety of charac- 

 teristics of soil, exposure, &c. By means of tables of distribution he 

 works out a coefficient of specific and generic community by aid of 

 which the degree of resemblance or difference between the floras of dif- 

 ferent stations can be estimated. He concludes that independently of 

 general biologic factors (soil, exposure, climate, &c.) the variations in 

 which determine the broad lines of plant distribution, there exist in 

 every limited area local causes of variation occasioning a true elementary 

 biologic difference which finds expression in a parallel floral difference. 



CRYPTOGAMS. 



General. 



Homologies in the Development of Male and Female Sexual 

 Organs.§ — Starting from the agreement in structure and development of 

 the male and female sexual organs at their first appearance in the Algee, 

 Prof. Goebel endeavours to show that the homology in development is 

 retained, both in the higher Algee and in the Archegoniatfe. The 

 antheridium in Characeee is a remarkably different structure from the 

 oogonium, and the same remark applies to the antheridia and archegonia 

 of the Archegoniata3. "Yet the assumption that these organs, like the 

 micro- and macro-sporangia of the Pteridophytes, have developed from 

 a similar ' grouud form' is an obvious one." 



The author has previously discussed the homology in development 

 of antheridia and oogonia in certain algas, e.g. CEdogonium and Cutleria, 



* Comptes Kendus, cxxxiv. (1902) pp. 309-11. 



t Proc. Roy. Soc, lxix. (1902) pp. 307-12. 



X Bull. Soc. Vaud. Sei. Nat., xxxvii. (1901) pp. 517-79. 



§ Flora, xc. (1902) pp. '/79-305 (figs, iu text). 



